John Molyneux: The National Question – some basic principlesIrish Marxist Review (Irland) nr. 8, dec 13 – side 4Note: Marxists are internationalists not nationalists. Nationalism is a key element in bourgeois ideology. It is one of the ideological means, arguably in today’s world the main ideological means, by which the capitalist class of all nations secures the compliance and even support of the working class and of the oppressed of all nations.

Neil Davidson: The trouble with 'ethnicity'International Socialism Journal nr. 84, sep 99 – side 3Note: From Dagestan to Scotland, from the Balkans to Indonesia, the language of ethnic conflict has become the common coin of political debate, seemingly replacing earlier concepts like oppression and racism. Neil Davidson argues that looking at the world through the glass of ethnic division obscures real issues of oppression, disguising the ways in which ethnic characteristics are foisted on local populations by the Great Powers. Even when, as a result of oppression or social dislocation, such populations come to adopt the ethnic identity as their own, such definitions should not be uncritically accepted by the left since they obscure class divisions and power relations.

Chris Harman: The return of the national questionInternational Socialism Journal nr. 56, sep 92 – side 3Note: Nationalism seems to be the most powerful political force in themodern world. From the Middle East to the Caucasus, from Ireland to Croatia, from South Africa to Slovakia no one remains untouched by nationalism. `The return of the national question' unravels the enigma of nationhood, tracing its roots in early capitalism and using the legacy of the classical Marxist tradition to chart the development of more recent national liberation movements.
Chris Harman shows how even the most progressive of such movements have close ties with the growth of the capitalist system. Yet there is an alternative to fashionable pessimism about the world's descent into communalism. It is to be found in class politics-providing socialists build on their own traditions' strengths, not its weaknesses.

Alex Callinicos: Capitalism and the state system: A reply to Nigel HarrisInternational Socialism Journal nr. 54, mar 92 – side 133Note: Reply to Nigel Harris' defence of his book "National Liberation", printed in our last issue

Nigel Harris: A comment on "National Liberation" (Nigel Harris: "National Liberation")International Socialism Journal nr. 53, dec 91 – side 79Note: Nigel Harris's new book National Liberation was reviewed by Alex Callinicos in International Socialism 51, the same issue to which Chris Harman contributed 'The state and capital'. Here Nigel responds to both articles, restating his analysis of the shape of the world system in the 1990s.

Alex Callinicos: The end of nationalism?International Socialism Journal nr. 51, jun 91 – side 57Note: Nigel Harris’ recent book ‘National Liberation’ is reviewed by Alex Callinicos. He takes issue with Harris’ argument that the globalisation of capital has led to a greater disassociation of capital and the state. And he disputes the claim that such globalisation will undermine the factors which give rise to national liberation movements.

SWP: SWP Conference Document: The National QuestionInternational Socialism Journal (1st series) nr. 101, sep 77 – side 9Note: The rise of the Nationalist Parties in Scotland and Wales has had considerable impact on the British labour movement. It threatens to undermine the Labour Party’s electoral base and has divided socialists as to whether the demands of the Nationalists for autonomy and independence should be supported. The question was discussed at the conference of the Socialist Workers Party in June, when the following theses were approved.

Nigel Harris: Black Power and the ‘Third World’International Socialism Journal (1st series) nr. 79, jun 75 – side 23Note: HOW DO the politics of black power relate to building a united workers’ movement? Some black power militants – and their white supporters – argue that in effect colour defines a separate national minority whose identity is more important than the class or classes to which the members belong. Because white racialism is so widespread, black people can rely only on themselves.

Nigel Harris: Race and NationInternational Socialism Journal (1st series) nr. 34, sep 68 – side 22Note: We have recently seen a public resurgence of racialism and, on a less dramatic scale, nationalism in Britain. The economic background to this change is fairly clear, but the mechanism by which the change is achieved is not clear.

Zionisme

Miriam Scharf: Review: The contested history of the left and ZionismInternational Socialism Journal nr. 144, okt 14 – side 211Note: Philip Mendes, Jews and the Left: the Rise and Fall of a Political Alliance (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), £65, and Paul Kelemen, The British Left and Zionism: History of a Divorce (Manchester University Press, 2012), £15.99
These two books, one concentrating on Jews and the left internationally and the other on Zionism and the British left, show some convergence in their pre Second World War coverage of left support for Zionism. But the different political perspectives of the authors—Mendes is pro-Zionist and Kelemen is not—lead to very different references, analyses and commentary for the period after the establishment of the state of Israel.

Tony Cliff: Roots of Israel's violence (1982)Socialist Worker nr. 1743, apr 01 – side 10Note: THE ISRAELI state is engaged in brutal violence against the Palestinian population and has killed hundreds of Palestinians over the past few months. In 1982 revolutionary socialist TONY CLIFF, who died a year ago this month, wrote this explanation of why Israel acts in this way. He was writing just after Israel had invaded Lebanon and carried out massacres of both Lebanese and refugee Palestinians.
(From Zionism to Genocide, Socialist Worker, No.790, 3 July 1982.)Alt. url: Marxists Internet ArchiveAlt. url: Reds/Die Roten

Tony Cliff: Zionism to GenocideSocialist Worker nr. 790, jul 82 Note: LOOKING BACK on my own experience in Palestine I can see how today's horror grew from small beginnings. Zionism, Jewish separateness and the belief in a Jewish homeland, have developed into state violence. My parents were pioneering Zionists, leaving Russia for Palestine in 1902 to join a total Zionist population of a few thousand.
Reprinted as "Roots of Israel’s violence" in Socialist Worker, No.1743, 14 April 2001.Alt. url: Reds/Die Roten